Electrical and electronic components are being produced in ever increasing numbers by many different manufacturers today. These manufacturers often subject their products to rigorous quality control standards during and following production. Notwithstanding this application of quality control standards, these electrical and electronic components still experience various rejection rates by their ultimate users.
The ultimate users often combine several of these electrical or electronic components into a specific circuit configuration which performs one or more functions within an overall electrical or electronic device. The specific circuit configuration in most cases is dictated by a printed circuit board which receives the particular components. The particular components may be automatically inserted into the printed circuit board by a component insertion machine if so desired. This latter approach is usually undertaken by a device manufacturer who is engaged in volume production.
As can be appreciated, it is important to isolate any problem associated with the automatic loading of components in a high volume production situation. This would include any misloading of the wrong components into the component insertion machine. This would furthermore include the loading of the right components in a wrong manner, i.e. by misorienting them so that they are oriented in the wrong direction for insertion. This would still furthermore include the detection of a component which was either defective from the original component manufacturer or damaged through subsequent handling by the device manufacturer.
The need to check electrical components for the aforementioned reasons has always been offset against the requirements for an expeditious handling and insertion of components by the manufacturer of the electrical or electronic device. This has heretofore governed the lack of comprehensive testing at the point of component insertion. In this regard, testing has usually been limited to a checking of the orientation of a given component by detecting a notch at the forward end of the component. The component is thereafter inserted if the correct orientation is noted.